Birthdays
by seaweedfma
Summary: <html><head></head>The best birthdays are the ones that you aren't expecting. This was done for HavocmangaWIP for her birthday. It fits into her 'Jean Havoc a Work in Progress' universe. Read it here on . Jean x Sciezka, spoilers for the end of the series, rated K .</html>


Title: Birthdays

Author: Seaweed_FMA

Series: Manga/Brotherhood

Word Count: 1417

Rating: PG to be safe for very vague sexual references.

Characters: Jean Havoc, Sciezka, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Heymans Breda, Kain Fuery, Vato Falman, Gracia Hughes, Elysia Hughes, Jim (I couldn't find his last name, sorry).

Summary: The best birthdays are ones you aren't expecting.

Warnings: Spoilers for the manga/Brotherhood series, especially what happens to Havoc.

Author's Notes: This is meant to fit into HavocmangaWIP's "Jean Havoc: A Work In Progress" universe, though I don't really have a specific place in the story where it goes. I would guess fairly early on.

I really really hope that this fits in the continuity. Admittedly I am a little rusty in your universe.

I don't usually write first person, except when I am writing in this 'verse, so I hope it is okay.

Happy Birthday, Heather!

It's few and far between, the days that I can actually count that I was able to wake up on my own, letting my body tell me when it was ifinally/i ready to get up and face the day. When I was a kid, I was always up before the sunrise, doing chores on the farm, then it was either school in the spring and fall or the store in the summer.

Sleep was always a privilege, not a right.

Now as an adult- between work, school, and therapy, I never really get a true day off, and the few times that I have, I usually had to get up early to do everything that I wasn't able to do during the week.

When my body started to stir- slowly- into wakefulness, the first thing I was aware of was that the curtains in the room were drawn back, a stream of light beaming across the middle of the bed- slowly creeping its way towards my face as the sun rose in the sky. Half an hour more and it would have been had a much less friendly wake up.

Wait... what time was it?

I shot up in bed and looked over to the clock on my dresser. 0920 hours? When was the last time I slept past nine in the morning? My eyes moved over to the other side of the bed- I wasn't surprised (but more than a little disappointed) that it was empty, and it had been for a while, there was no residual heat left from her body.

"I guess I should get up." I transferred to my chair and headed in to the bathroom to do the normal morning routine. When I came out- showered and ready to face the day, the smell of breakfast was filling the house.

Ah, I love my girlfriend. Even though it was getting closer to lunch than breakfast, my girl knew that there was nothing I liked better than a big ole plate of eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits.

Well, maybe I could think of ione/i thing I liked better.

A smile filled my face as I rolled into the living room. "Morning, sexy. I-"

"Happy Birthday!"

I was certainly glad that I had decided to get fully dressed, because along with Sciezka, Roy, Breda, Falman, Fuery, Gracia and Elysia, and Jim were standing around, waiting for me to arrive.

Honestly, I hadn't even thought about what day it was. Being an only child, birthdays were never much of a big deal. I was usually working in the store, and things were always pretty tight, so presents were mostly practical things. I never minded that, it made appreciate what I had even more.

Sciezka put her arms around me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. "Morning, sexy. I hope you don't mind a little impromptu birthday party." I had had a pretty rough day of therapy the day before and was still a little tired, but I could never resist those big, brown eyes of hers.

"After this, I'll give you imy/I present." One more kiss and she was gone, back into the kitchen to start serving everyone their brunch.

"Racecar Jean!" Elysia ran up to me and climbed up into my lap, followed closely by Gracia, who gave me a soft smile.

"Happy birthday, Jean." She said, picking Elysia up off my lap. "Jean can play race car after brunch, okay dear?" My heart broke at the pouty face that my little princess was giving her mother.

"If you wait until after brunch, I promise that you will get the bestest Racecar Jean race that ever was! Okay, Princess?"

"Okies!" Elysia hopped down and ran off towards the kitchen.

"Thanks, Jean. She can be a handful sometimes."

"No problem." I flashed her a big, goofy smile. "I don't mind being a race car. Gets me some exercise and she loves it."

Gracia put her hand on my shoulder. "You're too good to us. Thanks." With that, she headed towards our kitchen as well. I was glad that we had moved into the house, it gave us enough room to entertain guests.

One brunch and several race car rides later, the birthday party was starting to wind down a bit. Everyone was mulling around, sipping orange juice and chatting about this or that. Oh, but my tricky girl, she wasn't done with me.

"Okay, time for presents."

Everyone gathered in the living room, and I started to unwrap my gifts. There was a set of weights from Breda, books from both Fuery and Falman, and a phonograph from Roy and Riza. They must have set it up with Gracia because Gracia and Elysia got me a couple of records to listen to.

"They're Richardo Stuss, from Auergo. He does lotsa neat music with big sounds and lotsa cymbal crashing and stuff!"

I fluffed Elysia's hair and laughed. "Thank you, Princess. I am sure that Sciezka and I will enjoy them. I knew they had picked some music that would be good for us to listen to in the evenings to relax. They had really thought of everything.

"My present to you is in the therapy room. It'll wait till tomorrow. I'm officially ordering you to take the day off. One day of missing therapy won't put you behind. But I expect you to work extra hard tomorrow." Jim laughed,and I couldn't help but laugh with him.

"Thank you all for coming. You guys made it the best birthday I've ever had." I was thoroughly drained, but wanted to make sure that I saw them all out before I collapsed.

"But what about Sciezka? Doesn't she need to give you your birthday present?" Ah, leave it to Elysia to not miss a thing. And it was worth it to see the adorable blush that came to my girl's cheeks.

"I think she is going to have to give it to him later, honey." Gracia gently chided her child.

"But I wanna know what it is." She turned those adorable eyes towards me. "You'll tell me later, right, Jean?"

I had no idea what I was going to tell her, I could only hope that she would forget- but if she didn't at least I would have time to come up with a good cover story.

"Of course, Princess. You are my second favorite girl, after all!" Now it was time for Elysia's cheeks to redden a little.

As the last of the guests left, I slumped down in my chair. I hated that I didn't have the stamina I used to, that even a party in my honor wore me out, but I really needed a nap.

"We can clean up later, Sciezka. Come and take a nap with me."

"But I still haven't given you your present. Aren't you the least bit curious as to what it is?" I swear she is half cat, the way she curls up into my lap and makes it look effortless.

I leaned in and kissed her, having a fairly good idea what it entailed. "I would love to, sweety, but right now I am afraid that I would fall asleep in the middle of opening it. How about a little nap first, then we can get to unwrapping? I apparently have the rest of the day off, according to Jim and Roy."

Neither of us could resist spending some quality time cuddling in bed. She nodded her head, and I rolled us both into the bedroom. She climbed out of my lap and snuggled under the covers. I went into the restroom to take care of a couple of things. By the time I came back, she was breathing the deep, steady breaths of sleep. I couldn't help but chuckle. I was supposed to be the one who was tired, and here she was, asleep before me.

I transferred into the bed and snuggled close to her. She half woke long enough to cuddle into me, and was back out light a light again. "Night, Sciezka. I love you." With a smile on my face I closed my eyes and followed her quickly into dream land. So far it had been the perfect birthday, and I knew that it was only going to get better.

Author's note: Yes, Richardo Stuss is the Amestrian equivalent of Ricardo Strauss.


End file.
